My son asked me about the new hydrogen engine. He wondered about the problems it would have. I was thinking about a fast flame speed and how it would detonate.
The other problem I thought of was how like a steam engine, it’s not really good to let the exhaust condense on it’s way out.
Any thoughts?
5 Likes
Under certain conditions hydrogen can migrate into steel, making it brittle; 'hydrogen embrittlement".
Rindert
4 Likes
Which is why they use carbon fiber tanks for cars. The amount of pressure the tank must contain is another concern. Not new tech and for a number of years the USN has worked on ways to power ships with it. building infrastructure for consumer distribution is a major problem.
3 Likes
Most hydrogen vehicles are actually fuel cell cars that turn it into electricity.
6 Likes
BruceJ, there once was ~12-15 years ago a searchable article out of California about serious efforts to developed IC piston engines for transit buses.
Goerge W. Bush era.
They could design for the different compressed flame speed. They could design for the dry gas effects on engine lubrication.
What was giving them fits was hydrogen wall cling combustion.
Gasoline, diesel and most other fuels do not combust at all, or readily along quenching walls and contact surfaces.
Hydrogen gas did. Even favoring combustion there versus in-space.
Hydrogen-air mixing outside of the cylinder they were having too much combustion creeping past the intake valves under accel and decell modes. Where transit buses and municipal truck operated continuously. Boom-boom in the intake manifolds.
Going with sooner closing intake valves killed the cylinder filling, therefore the torque and power.
Some work on valve angle and valve to seats surface contacts revising.
They eventually felt that they had to go with direct into the combustion chamber injecting of the compressed hydrogen fuel.
That was still in development back then.
Regards
Steve Unruh
5 Likes
Direct injection was our arm chair conclusion as well. The stuff is just too little and fast.
We think of hydrogen as the same as electricity, just am energy transfer method.
5 Likes
This came up on one of my Youtube suggestions Bruce. I don’t know if you have seen it.
2 Likes